Éire Óg Greystones shine in win over Annacurra

BRENDAN LAWRENCE at Ballinakill

at the break as they laid siege on David Whitty’s goal over the course of those 30 minutes with breaches arriving from the boots of Gary Elliot after three minutes, Cillian McDonald after 21 minutes and Brian O’Sullivan 60 seconds later after a mis-directed goal kick.

Key to the Éire Óg men’s dominance was the performances of Willie O’Hagen at centre back and Brandon Byrne at corner-forward.

O’Hagen ruled the defensive roost while Byrne got on plenty of ball and stroked over two beautiful points (five in total), the second after collecting a Willie O’Hagen ball and running unchecked through the Annacurra defence before popping over the bar.

Annacurra’s only score in the opening half came in the seventh minute from the boot of Declan Loftus.

It was a sweet strike but sadly they were unable to gain any foothold in attack whatsoever despite switching Colm Maher inside with full-forward Eoin Donegan to try and ignite their performance.

Éire Óg continued where they had left off in the first half in the opening 13 minutes of the second with points (four, three frees) from the impressive midfielder Luke Bradley who finished with eight points (seven frees), Kurt Stark, Gary Elliot and Brandon Byrne to make it 3-17 to 0-1.

Annacurra broke that scoring run with a fine effort from Eoin Donegan who came more and more into the game as the second half progressed.

Brandon Byrne’s influence on the game remained strong and he added two more points in a matter of minutes.

Annacurra unleashed Sammy Walker on the game for Colm Maher and the burly attacker wasn’t long on the field before he split the posts with a fine point and he should have had a goal late on when he somehow punched over from two yards in front of an open goal.

Annacurra’s Eoin Donegan bagged their only goal in the 54th minute to cap a fine second half display but the game was already done and dusted thanks to a superb Éire Óg Greystones display.

- Éire Óg Greystones: Luke Bradley 0-8 (7f), Brandon Byrne 0-5, Gary Elliot 1-2, Kurt Stark 0-2, Daniel Byrne 0-1, Brian O’Sullivan 1-0, Ciaran McDonald 1-0, James Smullen 0-1, Sean Minogue 0-1, Eoin O’Neill 0-1.

Annacurra: Eoin Donegan 1-1, Sammy Walker 0-2, Shane O’Neill 0-2, Declan Loftus 0-1.

Scorers

Fran Chatham; Dermot Blake, Gary Dunne, Sean Minogue; Daniel

Éire Óg Greystones:

Byrne, Willie O’Hagen, Thomas O’Brien; Niall Deeney, Luke Bradley; Kurt Stark, Gary Elliot, Eoin O’Neill; Brian O’Sullivan, Ciaran McDonald, Brandon Byrne. Subs: James Smullen, Nicky Casey, Richard Carroll, Matthew Norman, Eoin Kiernan

David Whitty; Jack Keenan, Mark Doyle, Stephen Beattie; Patrick O’Neill, Ciaran Byrne, James Walsh; Stephen Murphy, Shane O’Neill; John O’Neill, Colm Maher, Declan Loftus; Niall Short, Eoin Donegan, Cian Moules. Subs: Sammy Walker, John O’Neill, Neill Short, Jim Fitzgerald, Jack Byrne.

Robert Roche (Carnew)

Annacurra: Referee: